Lord Henry's Mistake Essay

Amanda Boyd

The Picture of Dorian Gray

A key mistake established by the main characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray, is that their focus is always set on one another’s outer beauty rather than their moral backbone. In Oscar Wilde’s time era the society that he lived in was significantly influenced by the way people looked and dressed rather than the quality of their character. Lord Henry is the perfect example for someone who is only concerned with one’s outward appearance and social status rather than intelligence and personal character. “But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face.” He has accepted as true that you
can’t be beautiful and intelligent at the same time, for it will ruin your brilliance. Even Dorian, who was once a blank canvas, is corrupted by Henry’s views and becomes preoccupied with the conservation of his youth and discards all morals and intelligence. “ I know, now, that when one loses one’s good looks, whatever they may be, one loses everything.” His views are completely changed; however Basil tries to save Dorian’s innocence and keep away from the ignorance that comes with being obsessed with outward appearance but cannot stop Dorian from his newly establish way of thinking. The characters in this novel are more focused on how each other appear and present themselves rather than the value of a person as a whole. Lord Henry’s character is full of drastic ideas and opinions, most of which emerge to be wicked to the reader.
“ I can sympathize with everything except suffering. I cannot sympathize with that. It is too ugly, too horrible, to distressing.” Although his greatest mistake is that he failed to focus on a person for the good qualities and traits they have rather than their appearance. “Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know.” Lord Henry is blunt with his superficial views. Before Henry even met Dorian he was obsessed with him all because of the way Basil had described Dorian. “Basil, this is extraordinary! I must see Dorian gray.” He was much aware of what he was doing to Dorian’s innocent mind while talking to him. “Lord Henry watched him. He new the precise psychological moment when to say nothing. He felt intensely interested. He was amazed at the sudden impression that his words had produced.” Henry manipulates Dorian to think just like him, Henry wants him to believe that reputation and acknowledgment are the only things that
matter. Dorian becomes infatuated with himself and the depiction of beauty.
He has an unnatural eagerness to sell his soul to have a certain exterior forever. “If it were I who was to always be young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that--- for that--- I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!” Dorian basically sells his soul for eternal youth. He is blinded and cannot see that intellect, wit, charm, and other character traits are much more significant to have. We see another prime illustration of Dorian’s ignorance when he is immersed by lust for Sibyl Vane. He was captivated with the fact that she was a beautiful actress and claimed to love her before he had ever spoken to her. Dorian fell in love with the excitement of Sibyl being someone different every night. “Why should I not love her? Harry I do love he. She is everything to me in life. Night after night I go to see her play. One night she is Rosalind, and the next evening she is Imogen.” Dorian’s love for her held no valid meaning. He was transformed by Lord Henry’s attractive and evil words into someone who cannot see past ones
exterior. Basil had his own obsessions with Dorian. He was too captivated by Dorian’s remarkable good looks to ever recognize him as a person. He never cared for Dorian as a whole, only as his beautiful masterpiece. This is why Basil attempted to save the simple mind of Dorian and return him to his naive ways. “One has a right to judge of a man by the effect he has over his friends. Yours seems to lose all sense of honor, of goodness, of purity.” Basil loved his art more than he ever loved Dorian, and this was easy for him to do because soon enough, Dorian became his art. Basil isn’t nearly as concerned with outer appearance as other characters, although it still means a great deal to him. He nevertheless knew that beauty was not supposed to be the most important thing in a person’s life. He tried to convince Dorian that but he didn’t pay attention. All the characters in the book have one main error in common, their incapability to see past a person’s outer shell and who that person really is.